Dry Cleaning are an English band who formed in South London in 2017. The band is composed of vocalist Florence Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, bassist Lewis Maynard and drummer Nick Buxton. They are noted for their use of spoken word primarily in lieu of sung vocals, as well as their unconventional lyrics.
Dry Cleaning’s origin story is well known by now. Guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton, and bassist Lewis Maynard had been friends and musical collaborators for years. At first Dry Cleaning was simply their latest project, based out of the miniscule garage next to the house of Maynard’s mum. Mutual friend Florence Shaw – a visual artist, picture researcher and drawing lecturer – was invited to join the band in 2017. She brought along an assortment of collected YouTube comments, words taken from greetings cards and magazines as well as pages of self-penned lines from the Notes app on her phone. A band discussion about how to make the prospect of performing as comfortable as possible for Shaw (a first timer) ahead of their first rehearsal as a four piece, led to her using her speaking voice. There were several references for this; Will Powers, ‘Ding Walls’ by Mark Murphy, The Anaemic Boyfriends, Grace Jones, ‘Sing With the Birds’ by Lumumba. Before long she was the group’s frontperson, her dryness, wit, and linguistic acrobatics acting as the perfect counter to the musicians’ taut instrumentals.
Following on from their thrillingly taut 2019 EPs Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess, New Long Leg is more ambitious and complex, with Shaw’s spoken vocals tightly intertwined with the band’s restless instrumentals. With lyrics preoccupied by themes like dissociation, escapism, daydreaming, complicated feelings of love, anger, revenge, anxiety, the kitchen, lethargy, forgetfulness, and survival, Shaw says, “the title is ambiguous; a new long leg could be an expensive present or a growth or a table repair.”
Dry Cleaning was formed by friends Tom Dowse, Nick Buxton and Lewis Maynard after a karaoke party in 2017 inspired a collaboration. They wrote instrumentally to begin with until six months later Florence Shaw, a visual artist, university lecturer and picture researcher by day – with no prior musical experience – turned up to a band rehearsal with a copy of Michael Bernard Loggins’ Fears Of Your Life to read out over the music. Before long she was the group’s frontperson, contributing words of her own, and serving as the perfect foil to the band’s music.
